1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to methods and apparatuses for controlling a user interface (UI) in an electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The advent of electronic devices (e.g., smart phones and portable terminals) using touchscreens has resulted in the rapid development of various input methods related to touch gestures. Meanwhile, the amount of information displayed on the screen has significantly increased as the performance of these devices has improved. When the amount of information is considerable, a user may scroll through the information to seek a particular item therein. For example, a user may look through an Internet page containing many pictures and text in a mobile browser by scrolling the Internet page vertically or horizontally, or search through thousands of contact addresses by scrolling a contact address list vertically. As such, the scroll function is a frequently-used user interface (UI) in Internet searches, document searches, or contact address searches.
The above-described scroll function is very commonly used to scan through a large amount of data on a screen with a limited space. In addition, a user may start scrolling by flicking the touchscreen with a finger and stop scrolling by touching the screen. However, since items may scroll very rapidly, it may difficult for the user to stop scrolling at a desired point in the data. That is, the user may inadvertently stop scrolling after or before the desired item is shown on the screen. Furthermore, when the user touches and selects a desired item in a real-time update list, such as an access point (“AP”) list, an undesired item may be selected due to an instantaneous list update that causes the list to automatically shift. As such, there is a need for a method and apparatus that allows a user to effortlessly and accurately select a desired item in a scrolling or shifting list displayed on an electronic device.